Thursday, February 2, 2012

Inflation Escalation

Think about the past 5 years, when the Great Depression 2.0 began to ramp up as the real estate bubble burst, auto manufacturers in Detroit were co-opted by the Federal Government, the Federal Reserve gave us a couple of rounds of "qualitative easing" and both Bush and Obama approved Tarp bailouts for the Banks too big to fail.

Is it just me, or does inflation appears to be escalating at a quicker pace in the past several years?

Just three years ago, I distinctly remember you could buy a plate lunch in downtown Honolulu for $6. Now, the exact same meal averages $9.

While I almost never eat at national corporate chain restaurants anymore, I did stop off at one after work the other day for an after-work beer with a co-worker. I looked at the menu while waiting for my beer to be poured...the price of appetizers are all around $10-$12 a piece, and typical entree's were around $15-$19, $22-$28 for seafood. About 4 years ago, I used to eat at such places like Chili's, Outback Steakhouse, Ruby Tuesdays, etc. pretty regularly as our "weekend" entertainment activity.

I certainly remember the average prices for such fare. But $12 for a burger and fries? 4 years ago, I remember thinking $9 for a burger and fries was ludicrous!

I also recall that a six pack of Micro brew beer was around $7. Now, it's typically $9-$12 for the same brands I favor.

Same goes for whiskey. A bottle of Glenlivet or Glenfiddich 12 yr. single malt used to average around $24 for a 750ml bottle. The same bottle is typically $32-$35 now.

Even more dramatic has been the price of bulk items I have been regularly buying at Costco for years now. Toilet paper, dog food, laundry detergent, coffee, artisinal cheese, bacon....the list goes on.

I think everywhere you look at today's prices, most of them are 2-6 dollars more for the same amount of product or service you used to pay for just several years ago.

Gee...you think all that the Federal Reserve's qualitative easing programs may have had an effect? What exactly is getting eased here?

20 comments:

No, it isn't just you. Inflation is escalating. The 1980 based CPI is over 10% at Shadow Stats.http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts

Speaking of Costco, did you notice with those coupon books that arrive in the mail that the limits are usually one item most of the time? Seems like not that long ago, the limits were usually like 4 or 5 items for coupon sales.

(Core) Inflation excludes the price of both food and energy. My understanding is that that's the number most commonly reported.

Price of food has risen dramatically over the past 10 years - it at least doubled. Petrol at least tripled. The above-mentioned exclusion hides the real impact on those for whom food/petrol are sizable portion of spending.

Sorry for the OT, but an important Paleo development, excerpted from a daily e-mail newsletter :

----Mr. Cooksey has offended a legion of dietitians... enough that his humble blog has been deemed illegal by the State of North Carolina.

Mr. Cooksey is a type 2 diabetic who got his blood sugar under control, getting off insulin and medication entirely, through a low-carbohydrate diet. He in the vanguard of the “primal” or “paleo” or “ancestral” diet movement that emphasizes meats and vegetables, and excludes grain.

His website, Diabetes Warrior, includes suggested meal plans and recipes. Thus, he has been advised by the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition that he is providing dietary and nutritional advice without a license.

If he does not remove the offending posts, he’s been warned he will be taken to court.

The disturbing thing is that the call from the Board of Dietitians came two weeks after Cooksey attended a nutritional seminar and spoke his heresy. Someone looked him up, found his site and snitched on him.

He was informed by the director of the board that “even IF convicted, it would only be a misdemeanor but typically these cases end without litigation, if the person agrees to change their behaviors or websites.”-----

In the last 3 years, the Federal Reserve has printed 2 trillion dollars which were given to the banksters who own it. Check this chart:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/BASENS

It doesn't include the trillion-dollar bailouts given by the Treasury to those same banksters. Nor does it include the explicit trillion-dollar guarantees issued by the Federal Reserve for the benefit of those same banksters.

The US Treasury in collusion with the Federal Reserve and its member banks have performed the greatest embezzlement ever done to American citizens, because Americans' savings have been misappropriated by fraudulent dilution.

My husband, one of the displaced, not counted unemployed, said the other day that there was a sharp increase in all of our groceries in just the last couple of weeks. Like, to the order of almost 1/4 more for everything.

Printing money (or debasing the currency) has been done since there was money to debase. The Romans reduced the amount of silver in there issued coins. The Germans after WW1 printed notes. Now the Bernank prints money electronically by adding a zero to the end of the total money in the primary dealers account.If you are the first in line to recieve this printed money you spend it immediatly on hard assets (gold, oil food, stocks land etc..). If you want to protect yourself from dollar debasement, do what the bid boys do and buy hard assest.

JUDGE IBARRA aka Ronald Ibarra is taking peoples homes away by unlawful forclosure.Everyones home was paid for when you signed the note and the bank cashed multiple copies of the note like checks using a blank page endorsement(look it up). The banks are presenting unlawful proofs of claim and he is unlawfully accepting these as evidence. The court is a for profit franchise owned by the foreign Bankers.The court employees retirements are invested in mortgage derivitives. Talk about your conflict of interest

Why are you sheeple not calling for elected judges, elected local Shariff which you allowed to be taken away. They just took away your elected school board. Wake up you have plenty of time on your hands start studying the truth.

You are not imagining it--food prices have risen dramatically. Just for an example, it seems that every few weeks I go to the grocery store something has risen in price. Just 2 weeks ago I bought organic milk for 2.99 (not on sale). I went to the store yesterday and it was 3.19. 20 cents in just 2 weeks.

Anyway, what I see going on is something called bi-flation. Actual goods people NEED on a daily basis will go up while luxury items like houses, art, etc will go down. Housing prices are artificially inflated right now to prop up the housing market so putting your money into one right now is not a good solution (unless you find one at the right price). Gold is basically the only way to retain your savings (unless it becomes a bubble) but only 5% of Americans own gold right now so it hasn't reached those levels yet. this is a good site to check out hidden inflation: http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts